While I find these discussions thought-provoking, and believe questions of equality and accessibility are of utmost importance in the social and political spheres, we might remember that some of the energy used to debate a man’s place in terms of choice could be aimed at lobbying for more effective male contraceptives.
Recommended: Not to be a Pill, but…
Let’s excuse some of the disparaging language in the above article and focus on the salient points:
1) Pharma has been reticent to develop birth control for men because of the pervasive belief that a) women don’t trust men to use it, and b) men are too irresponsible to be dependable. Wrong and wrong. Studies show that men are willing to be medically responsible for their own reproductive functions, and a significant portion of women report that they would trust their SOs to use birth control responsibly.
2) Pharma doesn’t believe that they will make money off of successful hormonal male contraceptives. Maybe — though the profit margin on female birth control is small, women’s widespread, normative use over time covers research and marketing expenses quite nicely. This ought to carry over to men’s BC as well.
3) The myth that hormonal male contraceptives make men into girls. Wrong — while they work differently than female hormonal birth control, recent research shows promise for easily reversible methods for men, none of which involve menarche, shrinkage or breasts.
4) Money. Private donations are down, corporate budgets don’t make annual increases like they used to, and big pharma spends a pretty penny making sure we all have our Viagra hats, Seasonale pens, and NuvaRing Superbowl commercials (right). Though the pro-marketing argument defends this spending on grounds of covering research costs, it would be easy to argue that this is the kind of research that is not only socially smart, but smart for business as well.
If we are committed to exercising the widest range of reproductive choices, including a man’s reluctance to father and support a child, this is a possibility that would do us all a great deal of good. Make every pregnancy a wanted pregnancy — for both parties.